I. Purpose.
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the OMB Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is responsible for oversight of Federal
agencies' use of information resources to improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of governmental operations to serve agency missions,
including burden reduction and service delivery to the public. As
part of this oversight, and as required by statute, OIRA publishes
an annual report describing the information collection burden imposed
by the Federal government on the public, progress of the agencies
towards the burden reduction goals set forth in the statute, and
agency activities to improve the public's access to Federal information
resources. This bulletin instructs agencies how to submit information
to OIRA that will be the basis for this annual report and will demonstrate
the agencies' fulfillment of their responsibilities under the Paperwork
Reduction Act, including their continuing contribution to the statutory
goal for paperwork burden reduction and the Administration's goal
of a 25% paperwork burden reduction from FY 1995 to FY 1998.

II.Summary. This Bulletin and appendices instructs
Executive departments and agencies:

A. to prepare an Information
Collection Budget (ICB) for FY 1997 and FY 1998, including descriptions
of significant burden reduction accomplishments and planned initiatives
for these years;

B. to document agency
violations of the information collection provisions of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 and implementing regulations (5 CFR 1320);
and

These efforts will be
led by the agency's Chief Information Officer (CIO) and carried
out by senior-level agency officials. Note that this bulletin requires
reporting which differs from that which was required in the past.
The Appendices highlight these differences.

III.Authority. This Bulletin is issued pursuant
to the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, as amended; the Budget
and Accounting Procedures Act of 1950, as amended; and the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995.

IV.Required Submissions. Executive department
and agency reporting should be consistent with OMB fiscal and policy
guidance. Agencies are to submit the following information in accordance
with the instructions and formats provided:

A. One copy of the agency's
Information Collection Budget, prepared in accordance with instructions
in Appendix A.

B. One copy of data
regarding agency compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act and
implementing regulations, prepared in accordance with instructions
in Appendix B.

C. One copy of data
regarding compliance with OMB Circular No. A-130, "Management of
Federal Information Resources," in accordance with the instructions
in Appendix C.

You may submit any portion
of this information electronically. Please use WordPerfect, version
6.1, file format on a 3.5" diskette. Please label the disk with
the agency name and the filename of the submission.

V. Submission
Date. Not later than February 15, 1998,
each agency listed in Part VII (Coverage) shall provide the reports
required by this Bulletin. The reports should be delivered to:

VI. OMB Hearings
on Submissions. During the last year, OMB has held
hearings with many agencies on their progress toward burden reductions
goals and agency compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. OMB
intends to continue this practice and will schedule hearings covering
material submitted under this bulletin.

VII.Coverage. The following agencies are subject
to the requirements of this Bulletin:

VIII.Information Contacts. Questions about specific
agency matters should be directed to the agency's Desk Officer
in OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Questions about this
Bulletin should be directed to David Rostker, tel. (202) 395-3897,
E-mail: rostker_d@a1.eop.gov.

IX.Expiration Date. This Bulletin expires
September 30, 1998.

Franklin D. RainesDirector

Attachments
Bulletin No. 98-03
Appendix A

INFORMATION
COLLECTION BUDGET (ICB)

I. Summary.
This appendix explains what an Information Collection Budget (ICB)
must include and what you must submit to OMB. You should note that
the requirements for this year differ from previous years.

to present an accounting
of your agency's total information collection burden as of the
end of the previous and current fiscal years and to verify a breakdown
by function of the burden imposed by your agency;

to describe information
collections with significant changes in burden (including new
collections) during the previous fiscal year; and

to describe information
collections with significant changes in burden (including new
collections) planned for the current fiscal year.

You should note three
significant changes to the ICB preparation from last year. First,
you are requested to verify the categorization by purpose of your
agency's burden, based on the information provided on the Form 83-I,
question 15, and compiled from our records. Second, instead of documenting
only significant decreases as in past years, you will need to document
significant increases and decreases. Third, you should provide information
about any new initiatives, including statutory mandates, that have
affected or will affect your paperwork burden.

While you prepare your
ICB and estimate your agency's total information collection burden
for FY 1998, you should take into consideration statutory goal for
paperwork burden reduction, the Administration's goal of a 25%
reduction in paperwork burden by the end of FY 1998 from the FY 1995 baseline,
and your agency's Information Streamlining Plan, submitted under
OMB Bulletin 97-03, dated January 13, 1997.

II. Verify
FY 1997 Individual Information Collections. Enclosed
with this Bulletin is a list from OMB's official records of all
active information collections and their associated burden figures
as of the end of FY 1997 (September 30, 1997). Check the "annual
reporting hours" for each collection presented in this inventory
list against your own records. You should not submit corrections
for 83-I and 83-C submissions approved after September 30, 1997.

If there are no errors
in the OMB printout, include in your cover letter to the ICB a statement
to that effect.

If there are errors,
provide OMB with the revised annual reporting hours. You do not
need re-submit the entire inventory list, but rather only those
pages containing annual reporting hours revisions and any appropriate
documentation.

III. Statement
of Agency's Total Information Collection Burden. Summarize,
in the format in Exhibit 1, your agency's total information collection
burden (in hours and in number of ongoing collections) for FY 1997
as corrected in Section II and as estimated for FY 1998. If there
are expired information collections for which reinstatement was
pending as of September 30, 1997, include these burden hours in
your total FY 1997 burden and provide a list of these collections
and hour burdens.

Follow this listing
with a breakdown of your agency's FY 1997 total hour burden by purpose.
Use the following consolidated categories from question 15 of the
83-I:

Application for benefits;

Program management
(includes "Program evaluation" and "Program planning or management");

General purpose statistics;

Research; and

Regulatory (includes
"Audit" and "Regulatory or compliance").

In addition, we request
that you report on the number of burden hours imposed by your
agency through "third-party disclosure" requirements. Definitions
of these terms are in section VI of this appendix.

You may base your submission
on the information we have provided you or you may do your own analysis.
If you use our data, please assign each of the OMB numbers listed
as "Unassigned Primary Purpose" to one of these seven categories
and report the new totals.

Follow these listings
with a description, in narrative form, of primary goals and timetables
towards reducing burden on the public; these goals should be consistent
with improving agency management of the information collection review
process. Also describe any circumstances, including new statutes
and initiatives, which may prevent or reverse burden reduction efforts.

IV. Significant
Burden Changes for FY 1997. Using the format in Exhibit
2, detail your agency's most significant FY 1997
actions that changed the information collection burdens on the
public, both increases and decreases. Do not report every program
change, just the most noteworthy. For each action, list the OMB
numbers affected, describe the specific changes (e.g., more frequent
reporting, consolidation of several forms, cross-cutting activities),
the causes for action (e.g., new statutes, initiatives, policy
changes), a breakdown of the hours affected by each change, and
whether each change was due to program changes or adjustments
to the reported burden (See Section VII. Definitions).
Use the comments section to explain any additional details, including
specific statutory changes which led directly to changes in paperwork
burden. Please be specific, but brief. Attach additional sheets
as necessary.

V. Significant
Burden Changes for FY 1998. Using the format in Exhibit
3, detail your agency's most significant planned
actions for FY 1998 that will change the information collection
burdens on the public, both increases and decreases. Do not report
every change, just the most noteworthy. Be sure to include significant
actions which will be required by changes in statute. For each action,
list the OMB numbers affected, describe the specific changes (e.g.,
more frequent reporting, consolidation of several forms, cross-cutting
activities), the causes for action (e.g., new statutes, initiatives,
policy changes), a breakdown of the hours affected by each change,
and whether each change was due to program changes or adjustments
to your reported burden (See Section VII. Definitions). Use
the comments section to explain any additional details. Please be
specific, but brief. Attach additional sheets as necessary.

VI. Burden
Categories. You are requested to categorize your agency's
burden into seven categories and report on the burden of "third-party
disclosures". These categories are described below.

Application
for benefits covers the collection of information which
is required in order to receive a benefit of any form from the
agency, including entitlements, grants, permits, loans, and contracts.

Program management
covers any collection of information designed to obtain information
necessary to conduct program oversight, make decisions about program
operations, develop new program strategies, or assess the efficiency
or effectiveness of an existing program. This category includes
"Program evaluation" and "Program planning or management" categories
in number 15 on the 83-I.

General purpose
statistics includes those surveys which are performed
to generate statistical compilations of general public interest
and not for any specific programmatic purpose.

Research
covers any collection of information designed to test an hypothesis,
permit conclusions to be drawn, and thereby to develop or contribute
to generalizable knowledge.

Regulatory
covers any collection of information required of a regulated population
as part of their obligations under statute or regulation. This
category include "Regulatory or compliance" and "Audit" categories
in number 15 on the 83-I

Third-party
Disclosures are situations where a person is required,
by a Federal agency, to provide information to a person or
entity other than the Federal government. These include required
reporting from companies to citizens through labels, posters,
or advertisements.

VII. Definitions.
Program changes should not be confused with adjustments.

A "Program
increase" is an additional burden resulting from an
action or directive of the Executive branch of the Federal government
(e.g., an increase in sample size or coverage, amount of information,
reporting frequency, or expanded use of an existing form). This
also includes previously in-use and unapproved information collections
discovered during the ICB process, or during the fiscal year, which
will be in use during the next fiscal year.

A "Program
decrease" is a reduction in burden because of: (1)
the discontinuation of an information collection; or (2) a change
in an existing information collection as by a Federal agency (e.g.,
the use of sampling (or smaller samples), a decrease in the amount
of information requested (fewer questions), or a decrease in reporting
frequency).

An "Adjustment"
denotes a change in burden hours due to factors over which the
government has no control, such as population growth, or in
factors which do not affect what information the government
collects or how (e.g., changes in the methods used to estimate
burden or correction of errors in burden estimates).

Note: For sections
III. and IV., only expired collections that are no longer in use
(and will not be put back in use) can be counted as program decreases
(e.g., surveys that have been completed). For an expired collection
which is still in use and for which reinstatement is pending or
expected, agencies should write "REINSTATEMENT PENDING" in the margin
next to the collection.

(1) Describe,
in narrative form, primary goals and timetables towards reducing
burden on the public; these goals should be consistent with
improving agency management of the information collection
review process. Also describe any circumstances, include new
statutes and initiatives, which may prevent or reverse burden
reduction efforts.

INFORMATION
COLLECTION BUDGET

EXHIBIT
2

FY 1997
Significant Changes in Burden

Title(s):
U.S. Survey OMB Number(s): 0000-0000

Total Burden
Hours, end of FY 1996: 12,000,000

Total Burden
Hours, end of FY 1997: 14,000,000

Change
in Hours

Type
of Change

Description
of Change

+4,000,000

Program

[Describe specific
agency action, causes for action, and, if this page covers
multiple OMB numbers, which OMB number is affected.]

­3,000,000

Program

[Describe specific
agency action, causes for action, and, if this page covers
multiple OMB numbers, which OMB number is affected.]

+1,000,000

Adjustment

Increase in
eligible recipients for aid from 25,000,000 to 26,000,000.

Comments:
[Use this section to provide additional information
about the actions described on this sheet. Please include specific
language or cites, if appropriate.]

[You may use this
format to describe changes in a single collection, changes
in a series of related collections, or changes through a
coordinated agency initiative.]

INFORMATION
COLLECTION BUDGET

EXHIBIT
3

FY 1998
Significant Planned Changes in Burden

Title(s):
U.S. Survey OMB Number(s): 0000-0000

Total Burden
Hours, end of FY 1997: 12,000,000 [sum for all collections
listed above]

Expected
Total Burden Hours, end of FY 1998: 14,000,000

Change
in Hours

Type
of Change

Description
of Change

+4,000,000

Program

[Describe specific
agency action, causes for action, and, if this page covers
multiple OMB numbers, which OMB number is affected.]

­3,000,000

Program

[Describe specific
agency action, causes for action, and, if this page covers
multiple OMB numbers, which OMB number is affected.]

+1,000,000

Adjustment

Increase in
eligible recipients for aid from 25,000,000 to 26,000,000.

Comments:
[Use this section to provide additional information
about the actions described on this sheet. Please include
specific language or cites, if appropriate.]

[You may use this
format to describe changes in a single collection, changes
in a series of related collections, or changes through a
coordinated agency initiative.]

Bulletin
No. 98-03
Appendix B

Compliance
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and
5 C.F.R. 1320

I. Summary.
This appendix explains what you must submit to OMB to report
violations of the information collection provisions of the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 and OMB's implementing
regulations, 5 C.F.R. 1320, over the last fiscal year. OMB
is required to report PRA violations to Congress, but this
is the first time agencies are asked to self-report violations
as required by 44 U.S.C. 3514.

II. Instructions.
For each violation that occurred during FY 1997, provide the
following information:

Title of the
collection and OMB control number if ever assigned;

Nature of the
violation, (for example:

Unapproved collection;

Expiration of
ongoing collection;

Modification
of an approved collection without prior OMB approval; or

Failure to display
OMB control number.);

How the violation
was discovered; and

How the violation
was remedied.

If you discover
any violations during the preparation of this report, please
contact your OIRA desk officer and remedy the violation
immediately.

III. Attachments.
To assist you in reviewing your agency's actions over FY 1997
for PRA violations, OMB has included in this bulletin two lists,
generated from the official computer records.

The first list
details collections that expired during the last fiscal
year and had not been reinstated as of September 30, 1997.
The second list details collections that were reinstated
during the fiscal year.

I. Summary.
This appendix explains what you must submit to OMB to demonstrate
compliance by your agency with two specific sections of OMB
Circular No. A-130 "Management of Federal Information Resources,"
as revised on February 8, 1996 (61 Federal Register 6434,
February 20, 1996):

Section 8(b)(6),
which requires the agency to maintain and implement a management
system for all information dissemination products; and

Section 9(a)(10),
which requires you to report to OMB all alleged failures to
comply with this Circular.

II. Information
Dissemination Management System. Describe your
agency's information dissemination management system, as required
by Section 8(b)(6), including an assessment of the agency's
progress in developing and implementing its portion of the Government
Information Locator System, as mandated by 44 U.S.C. 3511, and
explain how this system functions with regards to your agency's
most important information dissemination programs. This management
system need not be an elaborate formal system, so long as you
can ensure that your agency is performing the appropriate information
dissemination activities on a routine basis. For a more in depth
description of this system and what it must cover, see Appendix
IV of the Circular.

III. Alleged
Failures to Comply with OMB Circular No. A-130.
Section 9(a)(10) of the Circular provides that the head of each
agency shall:

(10) Direct the
senior official [CIO] appointed pursuant to 44 U.S.C. 3506(b)
to monitor agency compliance with the policies, procedures,
and guidance in this Circular. Acting as an ombudsman, the senior
official shall consider alleged instances of agency failure
to comply with this Circular and recommend or take corrective
action as appropriate. The senior official shall report annually,
not later than February 1st of each year, to the Director [of
OMB] those instances of alleged failure to comply with this
Circular and their resolution.

Include this report
in your submission to OMB under this bulletin. If you have received
no complaints for FY 1997, state that fact at the end of your
submission.

IV. Additional
information. Copies of OMB Circular A-130 are available
via the Internet on OMB's homepage at /OMB.